Legal Question in Family Law in California

Dad has visitation this weekend, but refuses to pick her up

I have a 13 month old daughter. Her father has every other weekend visitation with her from after work Friday until Monday morning where he is suppose to drop her off at daycare. My problem is every weekend he's suppose to have her, he calls me a day or two before and says he's NOT picking her up for the weekend. Shouldn't he be accountable for this? This has been going on for several months now. Everytime I tell him he has this responsibility to take care of her and he should take this time to bond with this beautiful child WE made, it makes no difference to him. He wants to be a part-time dad, but I know when she gets older, he'll try to become super-dad after the bonding process has passed. I'm in a dilema, shouldn't he have to follow the court order of his visitation set for this coming weekend? What if he doesn't pick her up from daycare this Friday? Unfortunately, I will not be available this weekend. What will happen? Will I be in trouble for this? Will he be accountable for this action? I'm so stressed over this situation and no one will give me an answer on what to do. Please help me!


Asked on 3/25/98, 3:00 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Ken Koury Kenneth P. Koury, Esq.

Cant force him to see child

You cannot force him to see the child if he does not wish to take advantage of the time the court has allowed him visitation. If his last minute cancellations are interfering with your raising of the child you might be able to ask the court to modify the arrangement by reducing visitation of having him pay for any extra expenses the cancellations cause you.

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Answered on 4/06/98, 12:23 pm
Mark D. Gershenson Mark D. Gershenson, Attorney at Law

Perhaps Mediation or Support Increase

Ken Koury is correct -- neither you nor the court can force him to see the child. You might want to move to modify visitation and support, which will trigger another appointment with the family conciliation court mediator. If he shows up, perhaps you or the mediator can get him to see the importance of seeing the child as scheduled. If not, then you can ask the court to _reduce_ visitation since Dad isn't sticking to the schedule, which may have the effect of _increasing_ the child support he has to pay you since the timeshare factor will be lower. That should get his attention.

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Answered on 4/09/98, 8:34 pm


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